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For a future that's supposed to have peace and harmony and no one caring about race, etc., there's an awful lot of Anglo-Saxon names in Trek. Kirk, Pike, Reed, Tucker, Barclay, Riker, Chapel, Howard, anyone?

But scratch the surface, and you find plenty of examples of characters practicing faith, showing off their heritage or otherwise bringing something different to the table. Everything from the Ishikawa-O'Brien wedding, to Hoshi Sato fretting over a recipe, to Chakotay's facial tattoo, to Uhura conversing in Swahili, to Kira Nerys calling on the prophets to Vulcan and Klingon rituals attest to the fact that the future is not a homogeneous melting pot of people.

Hence the challenge is to show characters engaging in something that show off their ethnicity or culture, whether it be a rite, a recipe, a bit of clothing or something else.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

And now, The Rules:

Word limit: 10,000 words max, with a little wiggle room above.

Story must be original for this month’s challenge, nothing posted here before please.

All Trek genres, series and films are fair game. Original characters are fine. No crossovers, please.

Only complete stories will be eligible.

Post a link to your entry in this thread when you’re done.

Contest to run until midnight (US Eastern Standard Time) January 31st, with voting to follow from Feb. 1st to Feb. 3rd, 2013.

Well, I have a couple of ideas bouncing around my noggin right now, neither of which is an "Apocalypse Now" ripoff as I've never actually seen it. Now, it depends on how much real life will let the ideas percolate...